BEIJING, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- China will step up efforts to check the spread of HIV and provide better medical services to HIV carriers and AIDS patients, the government said.
The decision was announced by the State Council, the country's powerful Cabinet, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
The announcement said public awareness of HIV/AIDS control should be stepped up and more should be done to detect carriers and to reduce the chances of HIV spreading between mothers and babies, and between other groups.
The report quoted the United Nations as saying about 740,000 Chinese, among a population of 1.3 billion, were living with HIV at the end of 2009. The number included an estimated 105,000 AIDS cases.
The report said as of August 2010, the cumulative total of reported HIV positives was 361,599, including 127,203 AIDS cases and 65,104 recorded deaths.
Xinhua said unprotected sex has become the main transmission source of HIV in China.
